Meet Miss Lucy and Gracie

I promised to come back and post photos of some of my vintage machines (see previous blog post titled "My Collection"). So here I am, but first I want to tell you a little story.

I planned the trip to pick up the machines so that I would be picking up the Janome Sew Mini first. I had a twenty dollar bill ready to pay for it. Then I was going to go to the bank on the way to get the vintage machine and get change for a $100 bill so I could pay $40 for the vintage machine.

Life being what it is I got a late start that day and decided I'd better go and get the vintage machine first since that lady had plans later and I was afraid I wouldn't get there in time if I went there last.

So off I go with my older sister and my little three year old granddaughter along for the ride. We get to the house where the vintage machine is and the lady is such a nice person. We loaded the machine in my trunk and talked for about twenty minutes about Etsy and that she has a booth where she sells antiques. She took some of my cards to hand out, gave my granddaughter a Barbie doll and we started to leave.

As I turned to get in my car, the lady said "you need to pay me". Oh no! I forgot to pay her! So I apologized PROFUSELY and got the money out of my purse. You guessed it...the twenty dollar bill. Then she said "it was $40." So there I was, apologizing profusely AGAIN! I was SO embarrassed!  How uncomfortable it must have been for her to have to remind me to pay her and then to also have to remind me to pay the right amount! I must say, she was very gracious about it. I felt so bad that I gave her a business card with a 10% discount code on it.

All I can say is that it was a senior moment. I guess my brain was still in plan A mode and didn't get the memo that there was a change in plan. I was all set to pay that $20 to the first person I went to. geez!

OK, now for the fun part. Let me introduce you....

                                                to Miss Lucy.
Miss Lucy was made by Southern Pride. Her cabinet is in very nice condition and there are some spaces in the door on the front for spools, bobbins and other small items. I'm not sure how old she is since I haven't found much information about her yet, but I'll keep looking. Miss Lucy is the vintage machine that I bought on Thursday...the one I forgot to pay for. : /

This is Gracie. She is a Singer 99K and was born in 1955. She's a year younger than me! Gracie is between a full size and a featherweight.  She needs to be serviced, but is such a pretty little machine. Gracie is one of the six machines my husband bought for me for a birthday present a couple of years ago. I'll have to come back another day and show you some of the others.

I am really having fun with all these vintage machines. If you have vintage machines I'd love to hear about them.

Have a great day! Happy sewing!

My Collection

Some women collect teapots, cookbooks, dolls, bottles, books, friends on FaceBook, shoes and clothes. Some women even collect husbands. What do I collect? I love old sewing machines. Yeah, those old vintage sewing machines. I have at least 16 vintage machines. I can't tell you off the top of my head what all of them are, but most of them are from 40-75 years old. I don't have them all up and running, but that is my goal when I retire.

To name a few, I have a black Singer 99K, a green Singer 185J and there is one treadle machine among them. The majority of them are Singers. No they don't sing, they are made by the Singer Sewing Machine Co.  Sorry, I couldn't resist!

 I also have two that are from the '80s and one sewing/embroidery machine that was manufactured in 2005. I could've bought a car for what I paid for that one. The least expensive one is a Singer 401 that I bought at a yard sale for $5. Yeah, $5. It doesn't have a cord, but I turned the wheel by hand and it does sew. I just have to get a cord for it and have it serviced.

I particularly like the old black sewing machines. I guess that's because that's what my Mama had, an old black Singer. I believe it is a model 66. One of my sisters has it.

My husband bought 6 of the vintage machines for me for my birthday a couple of years ago. I haven't looked at Craig's list since then because I know I can't resist the old machines. : )

Then a couple of days ago, I looked...and found two machines that I HAD to have. A full size Southern Pride (black with gold decorations) in a cabinet and a Janome Sew Mini still in the box. The Sew Mini is one that you can buy new, but this one was a steal! It has never been opened and I thought it would be a good one to use in teaching our granddaughter to sew when she's a little older. What to do....Would hubby let me have more? Where would we put them? Who cares! I HAVE to have them! LOL Just kidding, but you know what I mean. : ) Update: As I learn more about sewing machines, I know that I would never buy one of these plastic machine again. The old girls are so much better, even for teaching little ones to sew. Live and learn.)

I emailed and found that they were both still available, made arrangements to pick up the Southern Pride. I decided that maybe I would sneak it in and tell hubby later. (insert evil laugh and rubbing hands together)

I had saved the web pages for the two machines on my desktop. Then I decided I'd hide them til I got up the nerve to talk to hubby about them...after I bought them. : )  I mean, really, what man in his right mind would want 19 sewing machines in the house?

Too late! He'd already seen them. Oh no! He came in, sat down at the computer and said "I thought you had some sewing machines on here" I said "I did, I put them in a folder."(I showed him where they were) He clicked on the black and gold one and said "this one looks really good and it's a good price too. You need to get this one. What about the other one?" I told him about the Sew Mini and he said "I'll pay for them if you'll pick them up."

That's when it went all warm and fuzzy. Don't you just love it when they "get" you? He really gets that I have this passion for vintage sewing machines and supports me all the way. I LOVE that man! I think I'll keep him another 39 years.

I'll post some photos in a few days. This post is a little long already. I have a tendency to ramble...like now. Anyway, I have a quilting retreat going on at my house for a few days starting tomorrow.  I'll tell you about that next time.

Have a great day!

Long Over Due

I am SO tardy in getting back here to report on the pear wine. It's been over a year since we made it. We didn't much like it to drink. I don't think there's enough flavor in pears to make good wine. We should know..we're experts by now...I mean...we've made it twice! 

In the last few months I have been adding some baby items to my Etsy shop and sales have started to pick up. I love making baby things, so it doesn't seem like work when I am sewing for the shop. The part I dread is making and editing the photos, writing descriptions, etc. All the things you have to do to list an item. It's very time consuming. I'd rather be sewing. : )

Last year I made purses for our girls for their birthdays. Three of them are Alabama fans and so I made theirs with black and white houndstooth with either red or crimson lining and lots of pockets.

Actually I've only made two of those.  I still have one more Bama purse to make for our oldest. Her birthday was December 23rd. She's very patient. Bless her heart. The other daughter wanted a brown canvas messenger style bag. I used an argyle print for the lining and added an adjustable strap.

Currently I am working on a custom order for pacifier clips. I just listed the samples in my shop this evening. The buyer is in New York and is working with a designer. It is potentially a large order. Maybe it will lead to other things. I could certainly use the work.

I'll try to get back soon and blog about something interesting. Maybe something exciting will happen and I won't be able to sit still til I blog about it. You think? : )

Have a great day!

Pear Wine

Our grape wine turned out so well I decided to make some pear wine. A lady in our area gave us some pears to make preserves with, but they weren't the right kind for preserves. No one in the family wanted to eat them and we don't like pear butter. Wine was the only other thing I could think of to make with them.

I have the pears in jars fermenting, along with the yeast and water. It will be ready on November 20th, just in time for Thanksgiving. It's a small batch and should yield about 1 gallon. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have a great day!

Blogging Neglect and Making Homemade Wine

As I feared I would do, I have neglected this blog. I have had some problems with a big space between my header and the posts and didn't know how to fix it. I am very blog illerate. LOL I finally went to Blogger help and found an answer to my problem. Why didn't I think of that before?!

On a lighter note, my husband and I decided to try making wine with some grapes he was given at work. I'm not sure, but I think they may have been concorde grapes. Our wine turned out well and is really good!

The recipe he was given by a co-worker had a little too much sugar for our taste (we tried some made with the original amount, too sweet!) so we used a bit less in ours. Below you will see the"winery".  LOL

                                   

The grapes were put into a blender and then into jars. The jars each hold 2.5 qts. We then added the sugar, yeast and required amount of water. A rubber glove was placed on the jars to allow the mixture to ferment without letting any air enter the jars. We cracked quite a few jokes about our "winery" with the gloves waving at us! : D

The fermentation took 30 days. We ended up with about 1.5 gallons of beautiful red wine. The grapes we used were such a dark purple that they looked black. The wine has a beautiful magenta color....the picture below doesn't quite do justice to the color.

  

Recipe For

HomemadeWine

5c. crushed fruit

5 c. sugar

1 pkt of yeast

Place all ingredients in a gallon jar and finish filling with water. Place a rubber glove over the top of the jar to allow fermentation without letting air into the jar. You might want to duct tape the glove to the jar. Let mixture sit for 30 days. The fermentation should be finished by then and the gloves will no longer be standing at attention. : ) 

NOTE: If the glove goes flat before the 30 days is up, replace it with a new glove, it may have developed a leak or become too loose.

Strain thru several layers of cheese cloth or other cloth of your preference. We strained ours a couple of times. After straining out the fruit let it sit for a couple of days, then strain and pour it into jars or bottles. If you are careful you can pour it up without having to strain it again until the last of it where the sediment is at the bottom. We used a clean white pillow case which, of course, is no longer white. : )

Your wine can be bottled or put into canning jars like we did. Ours is not sealed since it won't be around for long. We have given some of it away and have the rest in the fridge.

This wine is VERY potent!! I found out for myself the other night when my husband poured us each a glass to drink while watching TV. I've never been drunk, tipsy or even had a buzz til that night.

I got up from the sofa to go and do some laundry and found that I had to walk slowly since I was a bit dizzy. It took a minute to realize that it was from the wine. I only drank about 8 oz, but then I'm not a drinker.

We buy a bottle of wine 2 or 3 times a year, usually Boone's Farm Fuzzy Navel. Some people laugh when Boone's Farm wine is mentioned, but we don't care, we like it. I guess that's because we don't know anything about fine wines. : )

Ok, I'm off to work on drapes, baby quilts and other such things. Have a great day!

Project Quilting Challenge "Road Trip"

It's time to vote again on Project Quilting. The challenge this time was a fun one for those who entered. and also for those of us who love to look! What am I saying??!! It's ALWAYS fun!

Again the talent displayed in this challenge is top notch. The creativity and workmanship gets better and better with each challenge.

I didn't have time to participate this time, but those who did deserve much praise and applause from the rest of us.

Click on the title of this post to check it out for yourself and please vote for and comment on  your favorite!
Public commenters have a chance to win great prizes as well. Just follow the instructions posted after the challenge entries.

Project Quilting Judges' Critiques

I received my critiques from Kim yesterday. I've never been judged before, so I was excited about this part of being in the Project Quilting Challenge. Here's what they said, along with Kim's comments.

DownHomeDesigns
Judge 1: Very nice. I would have liked to see a colored border to frame it. It looks kind of unfinished to me. 8.5 **Kim’s Comment*** I think the back you show in your etsy listing is fantastic – I like how you made it reversible so the buyer can choose – I think if this judge saw that she would think it looked finished - jmho

Judge 2: Lovely hand painted fabrics. A simple, but effective design. Some quilting in the white area would really add to the look. 6.5

Judge 3: I love your hand dyed fabrics, great shades! Having a white binding is unusual, and I think it works for this quilt. There is definitely a light, tropical feel to it, which is very pleasing. 6.75
Average Score: 7.25
**********
I really appreciate their insight and hope to learn from these challenges. I sort of limited myself in what I could do with the binding. I challenged myself to use ALL of the fabrics we were allowed to use for this project. That left me with only white for the binding after doing what I wanted to do for the front and back.

I was back and forth about using a few of the leftover 3x5s in the binding...a little touch of color here and there as it went around the quilt. Then I decided to use those few colored pieces on the back across the top and bottom, seen in this photo. They sort of gave the design a stopping place. I guess that's why I should have used the this side for the front. I actually liked it better, but listened to someone else, who shall remain nameless : P, and used the more planned design for the front. I have since regretted that decision. Oh well, we live and learn, die and forget it all, as my dear MIL used to say. : )

Can't wait to see what the next challenge will be! I'm hoping to be a little more imaginative with my next entry. : )
You can see Tropical Rainbow in my Etsy shop where it is now for sale.

My Project Quilting Entry

"Tropical Rainbow"

The Project Quilting Rectangle Challenge is now up for voting.  My entry, "Tropical Rainbow", is shown above. It's actually reversible and will soon be for sale in my shop.

I had a lot of fun creating my wall hanging. I really enjoyed finally being able to use the beautiful handpainted fabrics in my stash. I might just paint more and put them in my Etsy shop.

Again the entries are just SO creative and very diverse. It's hard to make a choice and vote for a favorite. I have several favorites and really like them ALL.

Please take the time to vote on one of the awesome quilted projects that are entered in this week's challenge. Then, if you love to sew/quilt or know someone who does, scroll down to see how to enter to win a great prize to keep for yourself or give to a friend.

Be sure to follow the instructions carefully on how to have multiple chances of winning a beautiful  Miniature Cathedral Window Pillow Pincushion, handmade by WarmnFuzzies, one of  our generous sponsors this week. This is a $20 value! As a commenter/voter you have a chance to win this beautiful prize. You can see this prize on the Project Quilting website or go to WarmnFuzzies Etsy shop.

My Challenge Project

To begin my project I had to decide what form it would take. I started looking thru my quilting books and came upon Georgia Bonesteel's bargello method. As soon as I saw it, I knew that's what I wanted to do....a bargello wall hanging.

Then I had to pick some fabrics. I started digging thru my stash and found some fabrics that I had handpainted about 3 years ago and hadn't been able to decide what to do with them. The colors are so pretty and summery looking. I knew these were what I would use.

At first I thought about using black to make those colors pop, but then I decided that white would look so much better and really bring out the tropical feel in the colors.

I wanted to try to use all 50 rectangles (cut from my handpainted fabrics)and both 1/2 yard cuts that we were allowed to use. Boy! Has that been a challenge! I'm not sure at this point that I'll succeed, but I'm trying.

I decided to use a white on white print for the 1/2 yard cuts. I liked the back side of this better, so I turned it over and used the back of it for the right side.

I ended up with both the front and back being pieced and they are both pretty enough to be used for the front. I won't have pictures til it is finished, but I'll post them when I do. (if I can figure out how! : D)

Judging from the entries I've seen so far, mine won't be a winner, but I'm having fun! I'll also have something new and pretty to list in my Etsy shop.

Project Quilting Season 1, Challenge 1

I've been working on my entry for Project Quilting. I'm excited to finally be taking part in this fun challenge. I've been watching from the sidelines and voting on the entries.

The participants in the first two challenges were so amazingly talented. It is so much fun to see how each person interprets the challenge and how they keep to the rules that are layed out. Each partcipant has the opportunity to put their own spin on the challenge and come up with something unique and one of a kind.

I won't give any hints as to what my project is, except to say that I'm having a lot of fun designing it and hope you all will like it.

Take the plunge and enter your own piece, you might just win one of the great prizes that are being offered. At the very least be sure to check out the Project Quilting website (linked to the title of this post) early next week when the entries are posted for public voting.